Mercer Report: Healthcare Labor Shortage Will Continue to Grow

Some sobering stats on the healthcare labor shortage from the Mercer Report.

• Sixty-four percent of healthcare professionals said better flexibility and work-life balance are key considerations that would attract them to a new employer
• Two in five workers said they would leave their company if they were not compensated fairly today
• Eighty-seven percent of respondents say that better pay and benefits would attract them to a new employer
• New York and California are each projected to fall short by 500,000 healthcare workers as early as 2026, driven by workers who decide to permanently leave their career in healthcare—with 1.6 million leaving for good in the next five years
• Currently, 12 percent of family medicine, pediatric, and obstetrics and gynecology physicians are 65 years of age or older, by 2026 that number will grow to 21 percent
• Demand for primary care physicians will grow by four percent over the next five years
• By 2026, it is projected that 23,000 primary care physicians will leave the profession permanently
• Over 3 million individuals work as registered nurses in the U.S., and the demand for nurses is estimated to grow by at least five percent over the next five years
• In the next five years, 900,000 nurses are projected to permanently leave the profession
• Employers will need to hire 1.1 million nurses by 2026
• If current nursing trends do not change, 29 states will not be able to keep up with demand and will be short approximately 100,000 nurses in the next five years

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Health IT will play a role in filling this gap. Technology has improved efficiency in almost every industry, it appears that Healthcare is now in need of some of that efficiency. Even that will not be enough to fill this gap.

#healthcare #healthIT #cio #cmio #chime #himss

https://www.hcinnovationgroup.com/policy-value-based-care/news/21241090/mercer-report-healthcare-labor-shortage-will-continue-to-grow